Case Study on Public Transportation in Istanbul

Edited by Cagri Fatih Guer

Abstract

In this case study , the public transportation system of Istanbul , which is one of the biggest and most crowded metropolises of the world, is briefly put under the scope through designing and working on a decision table by making use of Prologa software.

The essential data are mostly collected from web sites related with public transportation in Istanbul, especially those, who are in charge of running this tough business, and several conditions, rules and actions are created based on these data.

Introduction

Public transportation (also known as mass transit, public transit, and public transport) is defined as a passenger transportation system, which consists totally public services available for those people, who don’t make use of personal transportation vehicles or services such as personal cars and cars for hire.

A public transport system can be consisting of various vehicles such as busses, midi-busses and mini-busses, shared taxies, trains and commuter trains, trams, subways, trolleys, van pool services, paratransit, metrobusses, funicular systems, and also some vessels such as ferries, hydrofoils (sea busses), shared motor vessels, water taxies etc.
Brief Information about Public Transportation System of Istanbul
300px-Istanbul_Rapid_Transit_Map_(including_future_projects).png
Istanbul Rail Transit Network

The mostly used mass transit vehicles in Istanbul are busses and metro-busses, midi-busses and mini-busses, shared taxies, subways, trams, commuter trains, nostalgic tram and tunnel-tram on the ground, and ferries, hydrofoils (sea busses), shared motor vessels on the sea. Even though the water taxies are available in Istanbul, they’re not that popular and mostly used. Their relative expensiveness might be stated as the most possible reason of their unpopularity in public transit.

İETT (İstanbul Elektrik Tramvay ve Tünel, roughly translated as Istanbul Electricity, Tram and Tunnel, responsible for busses, metro-busses, midi-busses, nostalgic tram and tunnel-tram), İstanbul Ulaşım (roughly translated as Istanbul Transportation, responsible for subways and trams) and İDO (İstanbul Deniz Otobüsleri, roughly translated as Istanbul Hydrofoils, responsible for ferries, hydrofoils and water taxies) are the public transportation companies who are running the business in town are contributing with each other in most cases in order to provide a better service and equal price and tariff rates.

It’s better take a brief look at the tariff & price information, the ticket and travelling card types.
Name
Brief Description
Price
Akbil (Smart Ticket)
An electronic ticket with an integrated chip which is used for various forms of transportation.
Akbil-Chip is free of charge. Passengers are supposed to load credits. (Prepaid basis)

Single Trip: 1.5 TL (€0.7) (Adults)
0.85 TL (€0.4) (Passengers holding Discount Travel Card)
Change of vehicles in a limited time: 0.75 TL (€0.4) (Adults)
0.21 TL (€0.1) (Passengers holding Discount Travel Card)
Long Trip – Passing over Bosporus or FSM Bridge: 3 TL (€1.4)
Double-Decker: 3 TL (€1.4) (Available only on some routes)
Jeton (Coin)
Usage for subway, tunnel-tram, nostalgic tram and sea transportation vehicles, in case the passenger has no Akbil.
Single trip.
1.5 TL (€0.7) (Subway and sea transportation)

1 TL (€0.45) (Tunnel-tram and nostalgic tram)
beşiBiryerde (5 in 1)
An electronic ticket which is used for busses.
Limit: 5 times.
7.5 TL (€3.45)
Paso (Discount Travel Card)
Application needed.
Available for students, teaching personnel, people over 60 of age.
5 TL (€2.3) (Application fee)
Ücretsiz Seyahat Kartı (Free Travel Card)
Application needed.
Available for scholars, disabled people, postmen, press, war / labor wounded people.
20 TL (€9.2) (Application fee)

5 TL (€2.3) (Application fee for disabled people, war / labor wounded people)
Mavi Seyahat Kartı (Blue Travel Card)
Application needed.
For monthly ticket.
5 TL (€2.3) (Application fee)
Monthly Ticket (Akbil Credit)
Valid for one month.
110 TL (€50.6) (Passengers holding Blue Travel Card)

55 TL (€25.3) (Passengers holding Discount Travel Card)

Creating the Decision Table

In this case, the conditions and related rules & actions are designated based on the tariff and price data of the public transportation in Istanbul in order to create a decision table on Prologa. The purpose of this case is to predict how much shall it be paid for transportation under existing diverse conditions.

The defined conditions are listed as below:

  1. Age < 7? (Checks whether the passengers age is below 7)
  2. Travel on festival days? (Checks whether the passenger travels on festival days)
  3. Free travel card? (Checks whether the passenger has a "free travel card")
  4. Discount travel card? (Checks whether the passenger has a "discount travel card")
  5. Blue travel card? (Checks whether the passenger has a "blue travel card")
  6. Akbil (Smart Ticket)? (Checks whether the passenger has a Akbil (Smart Ticket))
  7. Single trip? (Checks whether the passenger takes a single trip)
  8. Passing over Bosporus Bridge? (Checks whether the passenger passes over Bosporus Bridge during trip)
  9. Shared taxi? (Checks whether the passenger prefers shared taxi)
  10. Minibus? (Checks whether the passenger prefers minibus)
  11. Double decker? (Checks whether the passenger prefers double decker)
  12. Monthly ticket (Checks whether the passenger has monthly ticket loaded as credit on his/her Akbil)

The rules are defined based on the tariffs & prices.

Consultation

Download Prologa Project File

Links

http://publictransportation.org/aboutus/default.asp
http://www.iett.gov.tr/en/section.php?sid=5
http://www.istanbululasim.com/en/default.asp
http://ido.com.tr/en/index.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transportation